Mahy, L

published in Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège, 93 issue 2, pp. 437-444 (2024)

Abstract: It is now clearly established that massive stars are predominantly found in multiple systems. While their period and eccentricity distributions are now well established across different metallicity regimes, the mass-ratio distribution has been mostly limited to double-lined spectroscopic binaries. The mass-ratio distribution therefore remains subject to significant uncertainties and open questions encompass the shape and extend of the companion mass-function towards its low-mass end and the nature of undetected companions in single-lined spectroscopic binaries, i.e. low-mass main-sequence stars, binary interaction products, compact objects, etc. We have conducted a large and systematic analysis of a sample of more than 80 single-line O-type spectroscopic binaries in the Milky Way and in the Large Magellanic Cloud using a sophisticated multi-technique, and multi-wavelength approach. We report on the developed methodology, the constraints obtained on the nature of SB1 companions, the distribution of O star mass-ratios at LMC metallicity and the occurrence of quiescent OB+black hole binaries.

DOI: 10.25518/0037-9565.11741